Page 40 of Brutally Mated
“That was amazing!” Thorn claps his hands approvingly. We really need to start working all together when it comes tohandling this girl. We cannot be undermining one another over and over again. She’s smart enough to take advantage of any little fractures in our alliance.
“Back into your human form,” I say. “Now. If someone sees you, there’s a real chance we will be discovered, and that could make the journey very dangerous.”
She lunges at me, jaws open and snapping at my face in an aggressive display. She’s much larger and heavier as a wolf, so she is able to knock me back against the cabin door. If I were to shift as well, I could easily dominate and pin her, but I don’t want to do that. We are remaining civilized and under cover. That’s a decision I made a while ago, and I want it respected.
She comes at me again, this time knocking me to the floor. She gets her jaws around her neck, threatening me, knowing that she will suffer for this soon enough. I do not move.
But Skor does. He strips off his clothing and he shifts. In an instant, there are two wolves in the cabin. He sinks his teeth into the back of Tabby’s neck, and I feel her jaws loosen as he bites harder than she expects, forcing her to yelp and whimper.
I get up, a trickle of blood running from my neck.
“Are you okay?” Thorn asks the question, looking worried. “She’s acting crazy. This is…”
“She’s uncivilized,” I say. Skor still has her in his jaws. Every time she tries to escape, he releases and then bites again. It’s got to be hurting, but she deserves the pain.
Tabby
I am wild with fury. I wanted to take my true form just to feel myself again, to know that I am still an animal, and that humanity hasn’t infected me all the way to my soul.
The moment I shifted, and I saw Krall standing there, looking annoyed at the fact that I shift with a little magical drama, everything in me told me to go for him. So I did.
I could have killed him.
I tasted his blood. It was rich and masculine. Delicious. I could have sunk my fangs in and extracted his essence. It would have been a right and acceptable animal thing to do. But I didn’t. I withheld death.
And this is what I get for it.
I am pinned to the floor, whining as Skor’s teeth sink into the skin at the back of my neck. He is hurting me, and I am letting him know, and he does not care. I am not going to be shown mercy. I know that. He is punishing me, forcing me into submission.
The taste of Krall’s blood is still in my mouth. It’s a delicious thing. The taste of an alpha is quite lovely. I want to bite him again. I want to assert myself. I push up, testing my strength. As a wolf, I am stronger than I am as a human. I am stronger than a lot of males.
But not this one.
Skor snarls and bites my neck harder, as if punishing me for the thought. He told me he could hear them. Maybe he can.
Get the fuck off me, you mangy low land scum,I think.
I hear a dark chuckle in my head, almost as if he’s in there. But it’s probably my imagination. My headspace now is entirely animal and I respond to animal things like force and teeth and ruthless domination.
The longer Skor holds me in place, and the more I struggle, the more I start to think that I will not be able to escape him at all. He’s bigger than me. He’s meaner than me. He’ll do worse to me than I am prepared to do to him. I think he might even enjoy it.
I relax a little, and am rewarded by him relaxing his jaws, then licking my neck in the same place he already bit. I breathe out. This is the first time in days that I have felt really animally calm. I still hate everything that can be understood in human language, but my simple animal needs are more than met in this moment.
“Skor, you need to shift back. We’re moving.”
I hear Krall’s voice in the distance, ruining everything as is becoming usual. I want Skor to stay on top of me. I want to smell his animal scent. I want to feel one with him. I want to be mated. I want…
Skor bites me with a quick, snapping motion. The order is clear: get back into my human form now, or suffer the consequences of disobedience. I don’t want to suffer the consequences of anything. But I also don’t want to go back into my pathetic, weak human form, the one that elicits so little respect.
Shift!
I hear the word in my head like a command, and receive another harsh bite. Skor is not going to shift until I do. I can resist, but it will just be painful, and it will annoy the dark alpha who has me in his thrall.
So I shift. I leave the peace and simplicity of my animal body behind, and I take on the complicated, messy, naked, and altogether vulnerable body of a human again.
The first thing I notice when I sit up is how much of a mess I’ve made.
My scrabbling has ripped up the carpet, and there are long drag marks down the door where my claws ran down. There is fur everywhere, thick puffy chunks of undercoat that must have been pulled out in all the biting and general tussling. There’s faint sprays of bloody liquid too, where our heads swung and bits of blood were sent flying. It looks like a crime scene.
